1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manufacturing technologies (such as oil refineries), and more specifically to a method and apparatus for blending when one or more of the components is available only for partial blend duration with components affecting several properties of the end product.
2. Related Art
Manufacturing plants are generally used to produce end products by blending several components (“blended components” or “blending components”). Blending generally refers to mixing components to produce an end product. It is used in several environments such as oil refineries, including without limitation, other process industries.
An end product is generally characterized by several properties. For example, petrol/gasoline has properties such as RON (Research Octane Number), MON (Motor Octane Number), RDON (Road Octane Number), RVP (Reid Vapor pressure), Benzene content, API gravity, recovery at various temperatures, and final boiling point The properties of blended components generally impact properties of the end product, and each component may impact a specific property to a different degree. Continuing with the example of above, Butane typically has a higher Octane number compared to the other blending components, for example, Butane has a Octane Number that is greater than 100, whereas the other Blending components may have a Octane number which is much less when compared to 100. Any increase of Butane in the blend will have a direct incremental impact on the Octane Number of the Blended product. However, Butane is also lower in Reid Vapor pressure compared to the other blending components, for example, RVP of Butane is in the range of 10 to 12 Kpa. When the Butane content in the Blend is increased then this would have a decremental impact on the Reid vapor pressure of the Blended product. Similarly, Light Reformats would have a high benzene content and will play a key role in increasing the Benzene content of the Blended product.
From the above, it may be appreciated that one skilled in the related art may conventionally determine the ratios of quantities of each component that may be used to generate an end product having desired (range) values of various properties. Accordingly, a manufacturing plant may blend the components in such ratios to produce an end product having desired properties.
Generally, executing such a conventional process has certain limitation such as, for example, timely availability of the blending components. Further, it is undesirable to wait until such components are available since production delays usually translate to economic loss. For convenience, it is assumed that only one component is unavailable and is referred to below as “unavailable component”.
One another conventional process addresses such production delays by continuing the blending operation using available components at the time of blending. During execution of such a conventional process, ratio (flow-rate ratio or volumetric ratio, etc.) of blending is computed without taking into account expected time of availability of the unavailable component.
It may therefore be apparent that such conventional approaches do not address the issues pertaining to meeting at least some of desired objectives. For example, one objective could be to minimize the aggregate cost of components, but the conventional approach may use a relatively more expensive component in a substantial quantity (while desired properties could have been attained using less expensive components), thereby leading to an increase in the cost of aggregate components used.
Accordingly, there is a need in the related art to develop techniques, which enable desired objectives to be met while blending, when one or more of the components is available only for partial blend duration with components affecting several properties of the end product.